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integrity-based business development
training program
- practical and proven marketing and selling
strategies and methods
- on-going to ensure skills learned and
change impacted
- individual goals and accountability
Program Overview
Why do
our clients come to us?
What
is the
pullingahead Program?
Who
should
consider becoming a member?
Program
specifics
Areas
covered in
workshops, problem-solving clinics and coaching
How
does one learn more?
Background
and
testimonial letters
Why
do our clients come to us? All of our prospective clients share
the following:
- They
need to develop business in one or more of the three key areas: (1)
retain existing clients/customers and
create promoters (from whom come 80% of referrals); (2) provide
more to existing clients/customers; (3) develop new
clients/customers.
- They
attribute their past successes to relationship
building skills and
traits such as trust, credibility and partnership.
- They
are in search of practical and proven marketing and selling strategies
and methods that draw on these skills and traits.
- And,
they want nothing to do with the conventional manipulative selling
tactics that only serve to compromise integrity.
If
this sounds familiar, please take a few minutes
to find out about what we do.
What
is the Pullingahead Program?
The
Program consists
of
a series of workshops,
problem-solving sessions and individual coaching
combined
with goal setting and accountability designed
to impact the three key business
development
objectives: (1)
retain existing and
create promoters; (2) provide
more
services to existing; and (3) develop new.
Our
focus is how
to use the EthicalFactorSM
(components of which are trust, credibility and partnership)
in both marketing and selling to drive business
development. Our program has absolutely
nothing to do with zero-sum selling tactics such as handling
objections,
getting around gatekeepers and sure-fire closes; these only serve
to
compromise value. Integrity
defines our methods and our clients. In
the capacity of a marketing strategist I recently designed
and implemented this direction with the CPA firm, Stone Carlie (letter
from partner, Mark Carlie).
Regarding our company background, relevant articles and further
testimonials on our program and approach, please see
below - Background
and Testimonial Letters).
Who should consider
becoming a member?
Any
individual responsible for delivering on the three key business development objectives
who is in search of a proven system that relies on leveraging their
integrity vs.
the mastery of
manipulative sales techniques. (Business Developers, Project Managers,
Account Managers, Architects, Engineers, Accountants, Attorneys)
Program
specifics
- Members start by completing
a Confidential Questionnaire. They are asked to evaluate where
they are in
each of the key business development areas (retain existing
and create promoters; provide more services to existing; and develop
new) and what are the implications if they continue with the status
quo.
- Members participate in an
introductory workshop: Pullingahead
of the Competition - Developing and Selling Your Competitive Advantage.
(Defining
article that sets forth approach.)
- Members then attend four
two-hour early morning workshops a month at our Clayton office
building. During fast-paced interactive sessions, we focus on
understanding ESI's "EthicalFactorSM" components of trust,
credibility
and
partnership and how and where they can be practically applied in the
marketing and
selling arenas to drive business development. Members
establish short and long-term goals that they are held
accountable for achieving.
- Each month each member
participates in an individual coaching session.
- Members commit to a minimum
of three-months in order to ensure sufficient opportunity to learn and
apply process
and impact change.
- We provide a 100%
money-back guarantee.
- The Pullingahead Program
also takes the form of distance learning.
Areas
covered in the workshops, problem-solving sessions and
individual coaching
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Differentiation
- Understanding
differentiation: the core and the value-added outer core
- The
cruciality of differentiation in today's economic climate
- Why
providing a better solution to client/customer problems is not the best
way to differentiate
- The
Superior Client/Customer Experience model
- Why
"satisfied" is not good enough to convey competitive advantage
- The
commodity anachronism - every
product or service can be differentiated
- Review of
opportunities study: "How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report on
Marketing and Selling from the Client Perspective" (Rain Today)
- Understanding
why the EthicalFactorSM
components
of trust
(genuineness), credibility
(believability) and partnership (client focus and accountability) are
the ultimate differentiator regardless of the business
- EthicalFactorSM
practical applications
- The
commodity anachronism
- Transitioning
a tag line into a statement of differentiation
Business Development Objective: Retain
existing
clients/customers and create promoters
- Why being
technically proficient is not the primary path
towards client/customer retention
- Difference
between "satisfied" and "completely satisfied" clients/customers
- Methods to
ensure the majority of your clients/customers are promoters ... who pay
their bills, buy more products and services and refer others
- How to
develop a client/customer commitment that will result in more promoters
- How to use
the informal survey to create promoters
- Review of
crucial client/customer interactions (touch points) that impact
perceived value
- Why
setting a standard of "exceeding expectations" is the wrong direction
- How to
become a "trusted advisor"
- After
mistakes are made (and they are made), how to recover in a way that
builds more client/customer value than you had before mistakes were made
- How to
apply Ethical Selling Institute's process of "impact listening" as a
significant value builder
- How to
maximize the impact of client/customer meetings
- When and
how to ask promoters for referrals and testimonials
- How to
use informal surveys to develop promoters
Business Development Objective: Provide
more services/products to
existing clients/customers
- The
economics of leveraging existing relationships
- Why
conventional selling strategies and tactics don't work
- How
to use the complimentary consult as a way to provide more services
- How
to use "impact listening" to provide more services
- How
to use third-party statements as an engaging method of directing
clients/customers to realize value of your offerings
- How
to use testimonials
- Applying
strategies and tactics of the Ethical Selling Institute to provide more
services/products to existing clients/customers
Business Development Objective: Develop new
clients/customers
- Review of
core/outer-core differentiation model and how clients buy professional
services
- Why
conventional marketing strategies fail to drive business development
- Understanding
the value of in-person impression power
- Developing
tactics that deliver in-person impression power
- Understanding
value of transferred trust
- How to
effectively use your promoter testimonials to develop new business
- Developing
host-beneficiary relationships
- How to
maximize association memberships
- How to
develop strategic alliances
- Value of
executive briefings and complimentary talks
- How to
establish yourself as the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" at
executive briefings and talks
- How to use
white papers to establish credibility
- How to
maximize the value of networking events
- Why the
conventional 30-second commercial serves to compromise the EthicalFactorSM
- How to
develop an engaging positioning statement
- Why the
best way to engage prospective clients at a networking event is to say
relatively little about oneself
- How to
transition an introduction into an appointment
- Value of
the complementary consultation and how to position it
- Differentiating
the RFP
- Selling to
groups
- Selling to
influencers vs. decision makers
- Why
conventional marketing approaches fail to differentiate and produce
face-to-face meetings
- How
"connectivity" marketing efforts can generate more face-to-face
opportunities
- Why
it's crucially important to set business development objectives and be
held accountable for achieving
- How
to set business development objectives
- Applying
strategies and tactics of the Ethical Selling System to develop new
clients/customers
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How
does one learn more?
The
next step is to attend our Pullingahead
Executive Briefing. This is an overview
of our differentiation strategy and program specifics geared for
individuals responsible for heading up business development at their
companies. Briefing will be held at our Clayton
location. There is no
cost. If you're interested in participating, please email
us about our upcoming schedule.
Please
don't hesitate to contact me for further information.
Fred
Firestone, J.D., M.Ed.
EthicalSelling.com
firestone@ethicalselling.com
(314)863-4000
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Background
and Testimonial Letters
The
Ethical Selling Institute, a
subsidiary of
Sempact, Inc., provides training and speaking services to
businesses and organizations
on how to further differentiate their offerings and pull ahead of the
competition by building more of the EthicalFactorSM
(defined as
trust, credibility and partnership) into
their customer/client
interactions. Our objective with clients is always the same:
provide a Superior
Customer
Experience, which will yield greater market share and/or higher
prices/fees. (Article that provides some background: Consultant
Helps
Businesses To Differentiate Service From Competitors)
Article that sets forth approach: Pullingahead of
the Competition - Developing and Selling Your Competitive Advantage)
Our EthicalFactorSM Clients
come from Business, the
Professional Services
and Non-Profit/Education/Government
and include large
corporations and organizations
(Anheuser-Busch, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, 3M, AT&T, the United
States
Postal Service) as well as small and mid-size businesses. The following
links are a sampling of
testimonial
letters we have been fortunate to have received:
Business
Vistage
International (2009 letter)
Enterprise
Rent-A-Car (2009 letter)
Royal
Banks
Argosy Casino
Center for
Business, Industry and Labor
Lighting
Service
Mailing and
Fulfillment Service Association
3M
AT&T
Hospitality
Sales and
Marketing Association
Missouri
Eagle
(Anheuser-Busch distributor)
Professional
Services
Stone Carlie
(2009 letter)
Blackwell,
Sanders, Peper, Martin
Contech
Construction Products
Touche
Ross
American
Society of IRS Problem Solvers
Association
of Information Technology Professionals
Stone
Carlie
Non-Profit/Education/Government
Business
Persons Between Jobs (2009 letter)
Central Institute for
the Deaf (2009
letter)
Clayton, MO School
District
Marketing and
Cooperative
Education Association
Logan College of
Chiropractic
US Postal Service
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